The exhibition is curated by Vicky A. Clark and Barbara J. Bloemink for the Regina Miller Gouger Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University and organized and toured by Pamela Auchincloss/Arts Management, New York. Zines were curated by Richard Gribenas, and comics and graphic novels curated by Ana MerinoWith power and a zap, cartoon imagery has recently exploded. Artists, graphic novelists, and zine makers everywhere are taking advantage of the potential to tell stories in a recognizable and familiar language. Today, artists use cartoon imagery to address problematic issues that are difficult to assimilate into the mainstream through purely realistic depictions. In the process of taking on difficult social issues, they participate in the construction of identity in its many guises, weaving aspects such as race, gender, sexual orientation, violence and war, loss of innocence, and the commodification of identity into complex, layered tales. And at times, they make us laugh at ourselves.

From the panoramic historical perspective of the 26 panels of the 15th century Retablo of Ciudad Rodrigo to the flower power of Georgia O Keeffe's "Red Canna", the University of Arizona Museum of Art presents the public with a universe of images that inform and inspire.